di·dac·tic

(dī-dăk′tĭk) also di·dac·ti·cal (-tĭ-kəl)

adj.

1. Intended to instruct.

2. Morally instructive.

3. Inclined to teach or moralize excessively.

[Greek didaktikos, skillful in teaching, from didaktos, taught, from didaskein, didak-, to teach, educate.]

di·dac′ti·cal·ly adv.

di·dac′ti·cism (-tĭ-sĭz′əm) n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

didactic

(dɪˈdæktɪk) or

didactical

adj

1. (Education) intended to instruct, esp excessively

2. (Education) morally instructive; improving

3. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) (of works of art or literature) containing a political or moral message to which aesthetic considerations are subordinated

[C17: from Greek didaktikos skilled in teaching, from didaskein to teach]

diˈdactically adv

diˈdacticism n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

di•dac•tic

(daɪˈdæk tɪk)

also di•dac′ti•cal,

adj.

1. intended for instruction; instructive: didactic poetry.

2. overinclined to teach or lecture others.

3. teaching or intending to teach a moral lesson.

4. didactics, (used with a sing. v.) the art or science of teaching.

[1635–45; < Greek didaktikós apt at teaching, instructive =didakt(ós) that may be taught + -ikos -ic]

di•dac′ti•cal•ly, adv.

di•dac′ti•cism, n.

didactic

Intended or inclining to teach or instruct people.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.

didactic - instructive (especially excessively)

didactical

instructive, informative - serving to instruct or enlighten or inform

didactic

adjective

1. instructive, educational, enlightening, moral, edifying, homiletic, preceptive In totalitarian societies, art exists solely for didactic purposes.

2. pedantic, academic, formal, pompous, schoolmasterly, erudite, bookish, abstruse, moralizing, priggish, pedagogic He adopts a lofty, didactic tone when addressing women.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

didactic

adjective

1. Teaching morality:

didactical, moral, moralizing.

2. Inclined to teach or moralize excessively:

didactical, preachy.

Translations

didactique

didaktički

didattico

didactic

[daɪˈdæktɪk] ADJ (= educational) → didáctico; (= moralistic) [tone] → moralizador

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

didactic

[daɪˈdæktɪk] adj → didactique

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

didactic

adj → didaktisch

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

didactic

[dɪˈdæktɪk] adj (frm) (educational) → didattico/a (pej) (person) → pedante

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

di·dac·tic

a. didáctico-a, instructivo-a, que se enseña por medio de libros de texto y conferencias a diferencia de un planteamiento clínico.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

It is so intensely and deliberately didactic, and its subject is esteemed so dry, that I delight in throwing it at the heads of the wiseacres who repeat the parrot cry that art should never be didactic.

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They were too didactic; art should never be didactic; and what is life but an art?

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The Hesiodic poems fall into two groups according as they are didactic (technical or gnomic) or genealogical: the first group centres round the "Works and Days", the second round the "Theogony".

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His didactic stories, like all stories of the sort, dwindle into allegories; perhaps they do their work the better for this, with the simple intelligences they address; but I think that where Tolstoy becomes impatient of his office of artist, and prefers to be directly a teacher, he robs himself of more than half his strength with those he can move only through the realization of themselves in others.

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The British Constitution was to Montesquieu what Homer has been to the didactic writers on epic poetry.

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"Adam Bede--drowned?" said Hetty, letting her arms fall and looking rather bewildered, but suspecting that her aunt was as usual exaggerating with a didactic purpose.

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More than once during the years that I had lived with him in Baker Street I had observed that a small vanity underlay my companion's quiet and didactic manner.

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(4) Descriptive, like Goldsmith's 'Deserted Village' and Tennyson's 'Dream of Fair Women.' Minor kinds are: (5) Satiric; and (6) Didactic.

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She sent this didactic gem to several markets, but it found no purchaser, and she was inclined to agree with Mr.

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Moss went on, looking at her children with a didactic purpose.

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The question is this: Monsieur the Principal thinks that my thesis ought to be dogmatic and didactic."

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I allude to the heresy of The Didactic. It has been assumed, tacitly and avowedly, directly and indirectly, that the ultimate object of all Poetry is Truth.

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